'Suzy's Cafe' on Armley Town Street circa 1980. It is now Naseeb takeaway but before it was a cafe it was Harry Peers fruit & veg shop before he moved further down Town Street on the other side opposite White Horse. Suzy's was locally famous for being the first establishment in Armley to have an American Pool table. It was great for all us then young 'uns who couldn't manage a full size snooker table at the Working Mens Club. We all congregated there to play (and learn) to play pool. Many 10p & 20p bets on games which seemed like big money then. It was 10p a game and winner stayed on. Don't remember much about the grub though.

Here is an account of another interesting incident outside Fat Freddy's back in 1988,originally published in Leeds Other Paper which was published around the cornr from it originally:

The Waterpistol incidentLeeds: What's On 1st July 1988.Gunfight' at OK Call Lane!WEST YORKSHIRE police gave a warm Yorkshire welcome to a rock band from Newcastle who arrived in Leeds on Monday - the startled musicians were arrested at gunpoint in a real life city centre drama.Gun-toting police swooped on Call Lane, surrounded the band's van, and ordered through a loud-hailer: "Come out with your hands up!"The four members of The Dead Flowers plus three friends were lined up against a wall at gunpoint before being taken to Millgarth police station.And the cause of this Starsky & Hutch activity? Members of the band had been seen with water pistols!Red-faced police officers freed them without charge after keeping them in the cells for five hours

Water PistolsThe band were due to play at the Duchess, Vicar Lane, on Monday evening, and they arrived in Leeds with several hours to spare. They parked their van on Call Lane - oppsite Fat Freddy's cafe, and just around the corner fromLOP House."They've been here most of the day," workers at Fat Freddy's told LOP afterwards. "They were really friendly and very polite. They were dead nice."Some of the bands went to a nearby shop and bought some water pistols, which they were going to use onstage during their performance.The band have been touring with Crazyhead, and both bands have been engaging in water pistol fights at the end of the gigs."They came in here to fill them up", a worker at Fat Freddy's told LOP. "There's no way anyone could mistake them for real guns, because one was day-glo pink, and another was day-glo green."LOP workers and visitors to LOP House also saw the water pistols - which were obviously plastic and very obviously water pistols.However, at around 4 pm on Monday afternoon the police swooped. Driving the wrong way up the one-way Call Lane, three blue vans and four patrol cars blocked both ends of the street as armed officers moved in.At least two officers trained revolvers on the six men and one woman who were ordered to spreadeagle themselves against the wall of Fat Freddy's.With guns still pointing at them, all seven were taken one by one and placed in a police van to be driven to Millgarth. The band's van was then seized by police and also driven to Milgarth.After five hours in the cells all seven were released without charge - although a police spokesperson says two of them may be reported for a breach of the peace. The van was also released, although 12 water pistols were confiscated.But by then it was too late for the band to perform, and they set off home for the North East.

DetectiveLOP understands that the police were called by a woman from the offices of Mount Charlotte Hotels, situated at the junction of the Calls and Call Lane - who saw (through two lots of windows and across a street) the band members sitting in Fat Freddy's playing with the water pistols and presumably thought they had real guns.Detective Fairhurst was sent to investigate. He went up to the office window, took a look, and radioed for the armed squad to move in.* The officer in charge of the operation was Inspector Cromack.The police are being rather coy about this plain-clothes observation of the event. Their official version is that they received several calls from passing motorists who thought guns were being pointed at them - and that they moved in because they were genuinely fearful for public dafety.Police spokespeople insist on describing the water pistols as 'imitation firearms'.Certainly the police who moved in, presumably acting on information supplied by Detective Fairhust, were keyed-up and thought they were dealing with a potentially dangerous situation."There's been an incident and I'm just trying to protect you from injury," a uniformed officer said, pushing an inquisitive LOP reporter in the chest.But, remembering the child in Birmingham shot dead in his bed by an armed police officer making a mistake, the only risk of injury on Monday was from the real guns in the hands of the men in uniforms.Last year, firearms were issued to police on 84 occassions for 'operational incidents' in West Yorkshire. 197 officers in the county are currently authorised to be issued with guns.

* This is not the first time that Defective Fairhusrt has been involved in an incident which was not quite all it seemed at first. In August 1984, when he was still a uniformed constable, he arrested a LOP photographer. Three years later West Yorkshire police ended up paying her £2,000 in an out of court settlement after civil proceedings for wrongful arrest were begun.

Steve JonesI don't know everything, I just like to give that impression!

In the 90s my favorite restaraunt in Leeds was Al Bacio's on Eastgate which was a lovely Italian place run by an elderley Italian gent and his missus they were real characters and he was always plying us with free liquers and other Italian alcoholic beverages. I seem to remember his son was a chef there too. The decor of the place was delightfully kitsch, the food was always good and very affordable for a city centre restaraunt.

I used to always have their seafood starter and I'd choose various pizza and pasta dishes all washed down with copious amounts of Peroni lager. Their pizzas were so nice I've never been able to order those stodgy horrible so-called 'pizzas' that people get delivered to their homes from 'pizza takeaways. The ones from Al Bacio were made with thin freshly made dough crusts and the toppings were fresh and tasty.

The kitchen at Al Bacio's was located on the ground floor behind a coloured glass screen and sometimes you would see the chef doing that dough spinning thing. They also had a large fish tank with large coloured fish lazily swimming round watching the diners. Sadly the place closed down about 10 years ago or so, I'd heard they were meant to be re-opening in Armley somewhere.

Jon, I've quoted selectively from your post above as I just wanted to agree with your appreciation of Al Bacio! We used to go regularly in the 1990s and I always had the frogs' legs starter, followed by pasta with one of the sauces invented by the owner. I think the sauces were named after Italian emperors and included combinations such as gherkins, red wine and chilli!

I remember going there one Saturday evening in 1990 when Italy were playing in the World Cup (the year Nessun Dorma was the BBC World Cup theme) - service was certainly a bit slower as the owner and his wife, waiters and kitchen staff were all watching a small TV in the restaurant, but as we weren't interested in the football, watching them was entertainment enough!

Back in the late 60's when I was at the building college me and my mates used to go to the Mang Fang well that's what we called it. It was behind the Wrens in the car park/gardens of the Registry office. that used to be a street can't remember its name but Brills was on the frontage top of North Street they used to do 3 Course lunch 2/6 (12.5 pence) soup starter, chicken curry main course and Ice cream to follow great times but then they closed it down for hygiene reasons I think its a long time ago ant body else remember it?

Back in the late 60's when I was at the building college me and my mates used to go to the Mang Fang well that's what we called it. It was behind the Wrens in the car park/gardens of the Registry office. that used to be a street can't remember its name but Brills was on the frontage top of North Street they used to do 3 Course lunch 2/6 (12.5 pence) soup starter, chicken curry main course and Ice cream to follow great times but then they closed it down for hygiene reasons I think its a long time ago ant body else remember it?

Chinese restaurants all used to offer a "business lunch" as above. The soup was like wallpaper paste, god knows what was in it, but Mondays it started out as chicken, Tuesdays it was mushroom, and as the week progressed it got darker and darker. Still I used to think they were good value, I wonder if you can still get one?

Chinese restaurants all used to offer a "business lunch" as above. The soup was like wallpaper paste, god knows what was in it, but Mondays it started out as chicken, Tuesdays it was mushroom, and as the week progressed it got darker and darker. Still I used to think they were good value, I wonder if you can still get one?

There was a Chinese 'buffet' restaurant near where I work (not in Leeds, so apologies for going slight OT), that did an 'all you can eat' lunch and they practically press ganged you into having the soup starter. Goodness knows what it was made of - it tasted OK, but i think the real purpose was that the glutinous stuff filled you up before you ate anything else!

Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act – George Orwell

That bought back memories no only of the soup but the sweet you could have ice cream highly recommended or banana fritter don't ask luckily I don't like banana's

Getting on to another long lost nose bag who remembers Bistro 5 this was on the corner of Albion Place and Lands Lane down in the cellars it used to be a book shop but in the late seventies early eighties it was the place to go straight from work spare ribs burgers to die for and chocolate brownies couple of pints and good value then from there to Digbys more drinking and of course you had the added value of Richard Whitley holding court what great days

Back in the late 60's when I was at the building college me and my mates used to go to the Mang Fang well that's what we called it. It was behind the Wrens in the car park/gardens of the Registry office. that used to be a street can't remember its name but Brills was on the frontage top of North Street they used to do 3 Course lunch 2/6 (12.5 pence) soup starter, chicken curry main course and Ice cream to follow great times but then they closed it down for hygiene reasons I think its a long time ago ant body else remember it?

Mang Fangs was reputed to be the first Chinese restaurant and I think it was on Brunswick St. as Brunswick Motors was on the corner. Dark red flock wall paper and Big chips are my only memories.

I think it was in the mid to late 1960s that I attended the Leeds Polytechnic (? that was its name) near the General Infirmary and Civic Hall area for 1 day a week as part of my work education. At the lunch break we used to go to a Chinese restaurant on the Grand Theatre side of New Briggate (possibly where Rajas now is). I don't recall its name but it did put lots of mushrooms in the ample meals!

According to reports I've seen the Polytechnic however apparently started in 1970 so I must have attended there later than I thought, but if so that surprises me.